


Out Of Battery

by notreallygrump



Series: Just Your Usual Apocalypse [1]
Category: Game Grumps, NSP - Fandom, Starbomb (Band)
Genre: AH - Freeform, Arin is a crazy fighter dude, But not quite, Dan is weird, F/M, It's almost a crack fic, ZOMZ, Zombie Apocalypse, fem!reader - Freeform, this was so much fun to write, zombie apocalypse AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-05
Updated: 2016-03-05
Packaged: 2018-05-24 22:45:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6169591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notreallygrump/pseuds/notreallygrump
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tensions are high between you and your companion Dan when the car dies out in Jackson, WY. Walking through the woods leads to reacquainting with old friends, and old friends lead to rickety beds.</p>
<p>Enjoy my brain spew. <3</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out Of Battery

The car is very dead. Like… _very_ dead. You manage to deduce this under the scorching sun from the sound of the engine giving it’s farewell in the form of a _“ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch”_ and a momentary splutter. You have the hood popped while Dan stays in the car, attempting to start it up, as the battery continues to give out when you slam the hood back down and give up.

“It’s fucking dead. The battery.” You’re so hot and upset that you use the same cloth you were fiddling in the engine with to wipe the sweat from your brow. You lean against the bonnet and take in your surroundings. You don’t hear anything in the surrounding area. No moans and groans. No infected. Good.

“Son of a bitch.” Dan slams the door shut and joins you. He assesses the situation too, and when he doesn’t hear anything he takes a moment to sigh and tip his head back, almost in relief from some form of pain. He’d complained of his back before. Maybe it was that. His hair is tied back into something vaguely representing a man bun, loose ripped jeans and his old grey shirt has the sleeves and neck cut out. You can’t imagine you look much better in your camo trousers, old boots and vest.

“So what do we do now? Where do we go from here?” You catch his eye and he shrugs.

“Take an hour to decide what we do and don’t need. Pack light and head out into the woods,” he gestures towards the woods that surround the left side of the road and your head turns to check out where he’s referring to. The trees might provide some shade while you walk and there’s every chance you could finally find a river or stream or something to just boil up and drink. You’ve learned to live on the basics and nettle tea sounds great right now.

“Alright. Sounds good.” You drum a beat against the car before taking your gun from your holster and loading it smoothly. You meant to do it a while ago, but your brain melted in the heat. You’re not running out of ammo, you have plenty for the numerous guns that you and Dan have managed to group together. You’re not worried.

“I’m gonna take a piss,” Dan announces while you’re reloading your other pistol - an M1911 - and you snort at how forward he is. “Back in a sec.” He walks off into the woods and behind a tree. Neither of you ever venture far when it comes to toilet trips, last time you went too far you managed to bring back a hoard. While he’s gone, you reflect and take in the view. While there’s the trees on your left, there’s a beautiful view on the other. Rolling hills that just make Jackson look so damn beautiful.

You’re so far from New Jersey at this point that you don’t know if you’ll ever make it. It takes a damn long time to drive there, sure, but it’s gonna take a whole lot longer to walk to Jacksonville and find a new car to start up. You’re lost in your own little world, where everything is quiet and tranquil, when you hear a simple “Hey,” from Dan. You jump and instantly hold the gun up to the direction of the sound.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that. I may end up accidentally shooting you.” You say, and slide the pistol into your shoulder holster. He’s walking back towards you with an amused smile, he throws open the boot to grab your bags out. Time to organise you suppose.

“Wouldn’t want that lil’ lady.” He says, dropping the bags next to you and settling into a kneeling position on the ground. You join him.

“Not that again please,” he laughs lightly and you sigh.

“Why not? You’re a lady. You’re little.”

“And yet, I’d still beat your ass easily.”

“What are you talking about? I’d win hands down.”

“Dan… you remember how we met, right?”

“I don’t recall,” he says, seriously. And you know he’s full of shit. He remembers the fact that you beat the shit out of him when he tried to make off with your stuff.

“Bullshit.”

“I know." He laughs stupidly, "I’m sorry about that by the way. I took your stuff. I just thought it was there for the taking.”

“Didn’t notice the girl sleeping in the corner?” You smile, remembering how quickly he had apologised when he was conscious again. You remember it fondly. Since that day - maybe three months ago now - you’d only become more and more of a duo. A team. For once you weren’t regretting companionship in this Hell hole on Earth.

“Of course I noticed her. It just wasn’t right then.” He keeps his head down as he says it, but you pick up on what he means. You two were always flirting - even in the middle of fighting infected he would compliment how you’d kill a screaming member of the Undead. It was a nice dynamic, you weren’t going to lie about that.

It goes quiet while you sort through your things. It's getting into the height of summer now, so you can afford to leave your thermals and take a hoodie and jacket. You'll be wearing these clothes for a good few weeks since you only found them a few days ago. You pack changes of underwear before filling the rest of your rucksack with 5 healthy days worth of cans, three bungee cords and a normal rope. You zip the bag up and reattach the sleeping bag to the top. It's fairly light, and you're thankful you're walking during the summer. Blistering heat, you decide, is far better than a rainy winter.

"Come on asshole," you say and stand to put your backpack on. Your water bottle is mostly full, and you attach the clip to your belt. Dan stands and does the same before the two of you turn to face the woods. This new territory that most definitely isn't yours. The trees that provide shade are suddenly foreboding monstrosities. You still haven't heard anything, but your heart is truly thumping in preparation for the worst. "Ready?" You ask, and you see Dan nod in your peripheral vision. He gulps, and you know he's feeling the same way. If not worse.

As you step into the new world, you keep an eye on Dan with true fear in his eyes. The silence is the scariest part of it. If there's anything you know after an apocalypse kicks off, it's that hearing something is much better than hearing nothing. With another few steps you reach for Dan's hand and hold it for moment, reassuring him without words. He clings onto your hand before you pull away and separate slightly. Treading carefully as to not alert anything in the vicinity.

 

It's a few hours of walking before you hear anything. The sun is beginning to lower to the other side. Telling you and Dan that it's early to mid afternoon. You have around two hours of light left before you should be settling down. The trees around you look like you might be able to climb them and find a vantage point to sleep without being bothered, you just hope they stay in this shape as you venture further into the land.

The noise is nothing to alert you, but a welcome _woosh_ , the sound of water flowing.

"Stream." You mouth to Dan, and he nods. You head towards the sound and Dan follows slowly, distracted by something.

The incline toward the stream isn't too steep and once you're down there you throw your bag to the ground, grab your old cloth and sink it into the water. It's cool and refreshing again your face and you can't even cope with how clean you feel. You hear Dan behind you, walking slowly. "Oh my God. You need to check this out, I've never felt so clean."

You're ringing out the water in your cloth when an arm grabs you, tight around your neck. You panic and struggle up into a standing position, the arm still tight and making you lose focus. Forced to do something, you bite on the arm and in the moment's hesitation from the bearer, you throw yourself away and onto the floor. Grabbing your gun, scrambling up to stand and aiming it accurately. "I'll fucking shoot I swear!" You shout, and gain your enemies eye contact. He's tall and crazy looking. A red bandana keeps his hair back, and you notice the cut above his eye.

"So will I, but I prefer a fistfight." He says. You notice the bow and arrow on his back, and the shorty in his holster. He's coming towards you with the brute force of his fist.

"Dan!" You shout as loud as possible, hoping that wherever he wandered off too wasn't far. The man's fist collides with your jaw and you take it like a woman. Fighting back with equal strength. There's a knife in your pocket that's easily accessible, and when you take it out after your third swing you hear movement amongst the trees.

It's either infected or Dan and you hope to all Hell that it's the latter.

You're still defending yourself when you see Dan run down the incline and into this man who's attempting to kill you. He takes him down in one motion and lands on top. Struggling, the man tries to claw at Dan before there's a gun to his head.

"Shoot him, Dan." You say as the man keeps struggling. Dan keeps his eyes trained on you, evaluating your emotions and deciding on the best course of action.

"No! No, don't shoot. Dan, it's me. It's... me." The guy is out of breath and his struggling stops. Dan turns.

"Who?" He snaps, and then he freezes. "Oh my god. Oh my god it's you... it's fucking you." He jumps off the man, and ignores your protests as he helps him up.

"Long time, brother." This man says with a giddy smile, and after a second of silence they hug each other.

"I mean... not the best situation but yeah... long time." He says. You're utterly confused at this point, but you've shut up and you're just waiting for an explanation. You know that  
Dan's trustworthy. Things like this have happened and he's never hesitated until now.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I nearly shot your buddy over there." He nods towards you and you speak up.

"Hey, fuck you man. You made me fucking bleed you dickweed." You're starting to get angry, but Dan heads towards you in a rush to calm you down.

"(Y/N) it's okay. I know this is weird but seriously." He slides an arm around your waist and holds you tight before turning towards the other man. "This... this is Arin."

You don't know who that is.

"He's my best friend. We were... well, we worked together and when this broke out we holed up together." He looks at you to reassure you and when you take a minute to look at Arin, you hold a hand out.

"(Y/N)" you say, bluntly. Arin smiles and shakes your hand.

"(Y/N) and I have been heading towards Jersey. We're both from there. We want to check it out and then work shit out from there."

"So are you two...?" Arin tails off and you interrupt before he can embarrass himself.

"No. No, no. Just friends. Got each others backs." You wish there was a chance of that, but the looks and flirts never meant a thing. Arin looks at Danny, and they share a look that you can't read.

"Well anyway, I'm really sorry for trying to beat your ass like that. Obviously I wouldn't have if I knew you were with Dan."

"I guess I know what you mean. Sorry for bringing a knife into a fist fight."

"I wouldn't have stopped if you didn't. You were saving yourself. I'd do the same."

You hate the fact that this is settled so simply. If you didn't know this Arin then he'd be dead by now.

"So where are the others?" Dan asks Arin, and that smile dampens into a sad look. "Arin, what happened?"

"We... we lost Ross and Holly." Dan bends down and buries his head in his hands. You see him sob, and you take it upon yourself to sit next to him quietly. "They... Holly was attacked at night. She was gone within hours. Ross followed shortly after."

"Fucking hell," Dan cries. You catch onto the idea that Ross didn't die because of a fucking runner. "Is everyone else okay? Where are Suzy and Barry? Kevin?"

"The rest of us are okay thus far. We're holed up just north of here. We're not... well we're not extraordinary."

"Who is?" You look up from Dan and Arin huffs out a laugh.

"Exactly." Arin comes and sits next to Dan. Throwing an arm over his shoulder and pulling him in. "You know, I really missed you buddy," Arin says and Dan lets out a cry of relief.  
You take a minute to let them get it together before you stand and grab your bag.

Arin speaks again, "Have you guys got somewhere to go?" he asks you directly, knowing Dan can't really answer while he's recovering from the news.

"Just... figured we'd make our way up high and rest there." You examine the trees surrounding you, there's one that looks easy enough to climb without a risk of certain death.

"Join us. We've got space for you. It's just a little house we found. There's a room we're not using that you guys can camp out inside." It's an incredibly generous offer, and had it come from anyone else you would have told them to get fucked and hit the high road. Instead you look to Dan, who's wiping tears away and regaining composure.

"That sounds great Arin. Thank you." Dan smiles, and looks at you with a reassuring thumbs up.

"Awesome, come on. It's only a mile or so." Arin gets up, dusts himself off and takes out his own knife. Dan gets up last. He sighs, his eyes a deep puffy red, and walks over to you.

"Thank you for agreeing to go with Arin, (Y/N)." He wraps an arm around you and holds you close to him, it's the first time he's instigated anything. You've always hugged him, you've always dragged him away from a situation, you've always held his hand when you've been scared. You grab the chance to hold him and loop your arms around him. Arin is walking up the hill with his back turned to you when he calls down to be quick. Dan let's go of you to start walking, picking his bag up on the way, but stays close to you.

 

You hit the house within half an hour, and the sun is starting to really set now. The conversation is quiet as you all check the perimeters of the house. Arin finds one runner to the east of the forest and takes it out with ease. He acts like he's trained, but when you ask Dan he just laughs and tells you about Arin's affinity for video games back when the country had a working power grid.

When you get into the house there's a scream from the stairs in front of you, a woman rushes down the stairs and into the open space to leap onto Dan. After a moment of true joy and Dan assuring this woman that he’s okay, she steps away and looks to you. She's intimidating at first, and you notice that she and Arin have the same fading blonde streak in their hair, but then she smiles warmly.

"Suzy, Arin’s wife." Dan says, and she holds out a hand like you did with Arin earlier.

"(Y/N), Dan’s-” You two look at each other momentarily and he smiles. "Friend,” you finish and Dan turns to talk to Arin two other guys. One is bearded, and the other looks to be the youngest.

"It's gonna be nice to have another girl around the place." She says quietly, and you smile because you know exactly what she means. Even though it just stuck with every convention you could think of, periods are really shitty when you can't talk openly about them to a friend - even though you had mentioned it to Dan a few times. He would squirm a little. You would laugh.

"I know exactly what you mean."

"Anyway, this is Barry." She gestures to the other guy huggin Dan in a big group. He gives you a nod of approval, and then Suzy gives you a hug out of nowhere. She holds you tight and before pulling away you hear her whisper. "Thank you for keeping him safe." You nod and tell her it's okay.

“Okay, so are you guys okay with sharing a room? It’s upstairs, the last one on the left. Get some rest. We went hunting this morning, so if you guys want food later I’m gonna make a stew kinda thing.” Arin says all of this with sighs and yawns, dropping onto an old, battered couch in the corner of the make-shift living room. It’s cosy. There’s an old fireplace, but it looks unused. It makes sense. Anything out of the ordinary would attract strangers.

“That’s fine by me,” Dan says and starts to head upstairs, “I’m gonna get some sleep, I’m absolutely burnt out.”

“Me too,” you interject, and start to follow him. You pause when you’re halfway up. “Thank you guys, I know we don’t know each other but… I appreciate it. Really.” You see them all smile, and Suzy speaks up.

“Any friend of Dan’s is a friend of ours. It’s no big thing.”

You head up the stairs and find your room with Dan quickly. It’s a dark room, the walls a dark grey and the carpet a soft dark cream. There’s a bed in the centre, and Dan stands next to it, rolling out his sleeping matt. He’s giving you the bed.

“Dan. Just get in the fucking bed. I don’t care.” You say abruptly, dropping your shit on the floor and heading over. “As long as you don’t mind me without pants, I don’t mind you without pants.” He’s laughing, and you can see from his posture that he feels less awkward.

“I sure as Hell don’t mind that.” He says, and he takes off his jeans with ease. Leaving him in just his boxers and top. You go around to the side closest to the window and strip off. He’s climbing into bed, and you pause to admire the fact that you’re getting into bed together. Platonic or not, you don’t care. If the world was a normal place, you would date the _shit_ out of Danny. He catches you looking at him and you keep unlacing your boots, looking away before he can say anything. You peel them off along with your socks and your camo trousers. You take out the bobble in your hair that ties it back and shake it out, your eyes are closed as you run your hands through your hair. You hear a huff from Dan’s direction as you do this, and your eyes flick open to stare.

“What?” You question him, he’s lying on his front with a pillow pulled into him.

“In the three months we’ve been travelling, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you with your hair fully down.” You try to think of a time that it was, but it’s always too hot. You always had it up.

“Yeah, I guess so…”

“It’s nice. You look nice.” He says, and you shy away from his compliment. You thank him as he rolls the blankets away, and when you get in you’re consumed by warmth. “How you feeling?” he asks.

“I’m okay. Glad we’re safe. What about you? I’m sorry about your friends.”

“Yeah. It hurts like Hell, but I’ll get through it. As long as no one else dies, I’ll eventually be okay.”

“That’s good,” you turn onto your side, facing him. He looks so tired. Grimy and sad. Perfect in the most tragic of ways. “You’re really brave, Danny.”

“Just gotta keep goin’, huh?”

“Yeah… let’s get some sleep. We can get some food later. We’re safe.” You’re telling yourself. Not him. He reaches out and takes your hand that had made it’s way in front of your face.

“We’re safe.”

 

You wake up with a start and it’s very dark inside your room, but light enough outside to be proof that it’s gonna be sunrise soon. You find yourself staring out of the window and up at the stars. It feels good to be completely safe. No moans of the Undead. Just the soft snores of the house. You must’ve missed food.

The second thing that you realise is that you’re definitely not sleeping on your own. Dan is - of course - in the bed with you, but it’s the position you find yourself in that is truly weird. He’s spooning you. With his left arm underneath your waist, and the other intertwined with your right hand. You’re not sure what to do, or how this happened, but you’re willing to wait until Dan’s awake to do anything about it.

You lie there for a while, comfortable in his presence, gazing at the stars and making out which constellations you know. Eventually you feel Dan stir behind you. He coughs himself awake, and you turn in his arms to look up at him. When he realises that you’re in the position you’re in, he starts to move away before you grab his hand again and wrap it back around you. “It’s okay. It’s warm.” You smile, and he smiles back. He settles back down, but instead of lying his head on the pillow he rests his chin on your shoulder and looks out into the night.

“It’s beautiful,” he says, and then he looks at you. “You’re beautiful.”

When you hear him, he looks like he doesn’t know what he’s saying. When he hears himself, his brain kicks into motion and he stutters an apology.

“Shut up, Dan.” You say with a laugh, and then kiss him lightly. Cupping one cheek with your free hand, and letting it linger. When you pull away, he gazes at you like you’re the only thing he needs to see and you feel a mixture of anxiety and excitement.

“Hi…”

“Hey.” You kiss him lightly before continuing, “We should sleep a little more,” you say. It’s common sense, even though you would give up anything to keep going with Dan.

“Or… we could just be lazy and watch the sun rise from safety?” He kisses your shoulder and then rests on it again.

“That… sounds nice.”

“Yeah.”

“Dan?”

“Hmm?”

“I’m glad I met you.” It sounds sappy when you say it outloud, but it’s true. You wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t there to rip away the runners that grabbed you a week ago. You wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t shot those three hunters when you first started hiking together.

“I’m glad I met you, too.” He smiles down at you, and then snuggled back into the same way you had been when he woke up. You might only have a day, or week, or month left as a human, but you were damn sure you would spend as much time as possible with this man.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! As always if you have something like a prompt, just comment. This was super fun to write. Who knows? I might do a second part. Lots of love, <3


End file.
